A Visit
by skycloud86
Summary: Tony's in jail post-S3, and a visit from an old friend brings unexpected news. AC involving my OC, Alex Myers.


_**A/N – Someone posted a similar fic a couple of days ago, and I came up with an interesting equivalent. Tony Almeida is owned by Fox, and Alex Myers is my OC. This is slightly AU-ish.**_

As Alex walked towards the visiting room where he would see Tony for the first time since his arrest, he stared straight ahead at the nondescript metal door that separated the long corridor with a wooden floor, and the cavernous room that served as the visiting room. He was not here as a CTU agent, but as a friend. It had been two weeks since the arrest, fourteen days since his sister was murdered and countless hours and minutes ran through his head as he approached the door. They spanned from years ago, the first time he met Tony Almeida, to more recent events such as the day of the California presidential primary, when it had been Nina who was arrested and when it had been Teri who had been killed. They included the events of a fortnight before, the dramatic end to Nina's life, the horror of every CTU agent as eight hundred people fell victim to the bloodthirsty and bitter revenge of Stephen Saunders. As the guard opened the door for Alex, and as Alex walked into the room, he noticed Tony sat at a small metal table, bolted to the floor like the red plastic chairs, one on each side of the table. He was wearing the typical prison uniform and more facial hair than usual.

"Hello, Tony," Alex spoke as he sat down. Tony, who had been sat with his head in his hands, grunted a muffled reply, before slowly moving his head up to look at Alex. The bruise that coloured his cheek begged to be asked about, but Alex decided that it would remain unspoken of.

"It's Saturday, Alex. Why are you here on a Saturday?," Tony spoke, his voice hoarse and tired, and Alex wondered if Tony even tried to sleep at night. He didn't have any experience similar enough to be sure, but he probably would be the same if he was in Tony's situation.

"Well, this was the only day I could visit," Alex replied. Sundays had no visiting hours, and CTU hours weren't exactly social ones. Tony muttered something under his breath, but it was neither understood or heard by Alex.

"And why would you want to visit?," Tony asked. He looked at Alex with curiosity. Sure, they were good friends, even now after his arrest, but what was the point? Moral support from Alex and others was fine, but these visits just bored him. He watched as Alex took out a piece of shiny paper from his pocket, and he looked curiously as he realised it was a photograph. A picture of a small child, with blue eyes, dark brown hair, a small nose and a wide smile.

"He's called Joseph, he's...Nina's son," Alex explained, and Tony's eyes widened, not just at the revelation, but also at the mention of Nina. There had been some sort of unspoken, mutually agreed pact between Tony and everyone who visited him that Nina's name would not come up in conversation, even if part of him begged them to speak her name, to talk about the woman he had once loved, and in a strange and twisted way, still had some affection for. Even if he was married now, and even if he did love Michelle more than he loved any woman, that small, deep affection he had for Nina would never leave. He had learnt over the years to live with it, reasoning that due to the sudden ending of their relationship he had never really, truly gotten over her. Even if she did betray him, even if she had never really loved him.

"Her son? Do..do you know the father?," Tony asked, his eyes scanning Alex's face for any sign of him revealing it without words, before looking down at the picture of Joseph and trying to look past the features that the child had inherited from his mother, to see those he inherited from his father.

"No, not yet. The DNA is being analysed, and we should have a result on Monday," Alex replied, and Tony wondered whether he would want Joseph to be his son or not.

"Tony, when did you and Nina first have sex?," Alex asked, and Tony looked surprised at the question, wondering what it had to do with anything, before realising that it had to do with everything. He remembered that night, a cold one for Los Angeles, when he and Nina had been together for the first time, making love in her bed.

"Early February," Tony spoke quietly, hoping that it didn't mean the end to his blossoming hopes of being a father. He looked at Alex, hoping to see any change in his features.

Alex looked at Tony, wondering whether it could be possible for Tony to be the father. He knew that Nina and Jack had been seeing each other up until mid-January, so that left a few weeks between Jack and Tony. Not sure who he wanted the father of his nephew to be, Alex looked down at the picture for a second, before back up at Tony.

"Well, he was born around September, I'll have to look up the exact date, so that doesn't really give us much," Alex spoke. It didn't matter, anyway. Jack didn't know of the DNA test, and he was wondering whether or not to just tell Tony that he was the father regardless. A small voice in his head told him, confidently, that Jack would be dangerous to the child, that Tony would be a better father for Joseph. That Alex should remember what happened to Teri, what happened to Kim, even what happened to Nina, and that was Jack really suitable to be anywhere near Joseph? The man who right now was sat in a rehabilitation clinic trying to wean himself off of the heroin, trying to make sense of everything that had happened over the past few weeks. Wondering if he would ever be able to forget Nina's cold, staring eyes as she laid there on the floor after he had shot her in cold blood. He had wanted revenge for years, but revenge had done nothing but end Nina's existence. Sure, he could continue to justify it by telling himself that she was a threat to him and his daughter, not to mention other people, but that really hadn't been the reason why. He could have kicked her gun away from her, he could have shot her dead minutes earlier when she was pointing a gun at Kim, but he didn't.

"If he is my son, could you tell me as soon as you can?," Tony asked, his voice quiet and Alex was sure that Tony was not only asking Alex, but pleading to something else, hoping that Joseph would be his son, that not only would he have a son to love and be a father to, he would be able to survive prison knowing that both his wife and his son were out there, waiting for him to be released.

"Of course," Alex replied, and he pushed the photograph over to Tony. "Keep hold of it, Tony. If he does turn out to be your son, you'll at least have a picture of him,"

Alex had decided. He hoped that it would be the right choice, both for the father and for his nephew.


End file.
